Reviewing and rating books: A deeply personal act

The following Tweet popped up in my Twitter feed the other day and it got me thinking… There are a couple of issues within this tweet, including the concept of authors trying to influence reviews/ratings of their books, but the one I want to focus on is the act of rating and reviewing books, and…

Opinion: Teen Reading in the Digital Era Report Update

The Teen Reading in the Digital Era project is a fabulous project that is run by a team of researchers from Deakin University and is all about understanding teen reading habits. Findings of this research provide valuable insights into the reading lives of teens. They have recently released a report with an update on their…

PhD Research Confirmed

I am so very pleased to announce that I have been officially confirmed as a PhD candidate in the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University. In this blog post, I will share my research project plans, questions, and hopes. Firstly, some logistical information. My research project is called: Factors affecting the…

Defining digital literature

I am currently the subject coordinator of ETL533 Literature in Digital Environments, an elective subject for the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship), Master of Information Studies, and Graduate Certificate of Information Studies courses. We are exploring different aspects of digital literature and in our meeting last night, we started to consider the question of “what…

Aesthetic and Efferent Reading

During my reading for my PhD, I discovered a concept from the 1970s and 1980s that divides all reading into two categories: Aesthetic reading and efferent reading. This concept was put forth by Louise Rosenblatt (1904 – 2005) and has since been supported by the work of many researchers, including Beumer Johnson (2011), Krashen (2020),…

Reviews of Rainbow Reads

I’ve been reading a bit of LGBTQIA+ fiction lately and thought I’d do some quick reviews! Clearly I’ve been reading lots of MLM (man loves man) fiction and need to discover some other reads – suggestions welcome in the comments please! Young Adult Fiction Heartstopper is an oldy but a goody and is widely acknowledged…

Three power pieces for your reading advocacy playbook

There is a wealth of information out there on the motivation to read for pleasure, and a lot of it focussed on children and young people. I thought I’d write a quick blog with three great research power pieces that you can use to beef up your argument for including reading time in your school…

Reading Efficiency

I recently came across the concept of the “Matthew Effect” and how it applies to reading, and so I thought I’d share some of my learnings here and combine it with some of the literature I’ve been reading. Firstly, the Matthew Effect is a concept that has been around for a very long time –…

The magic of Harry Potter

As a teacher librarian I regularly come across the phrases “I hate reading” and “I’m not a reader” in my day-to-day work. I am never angered by these comments, nor am I surprised, but rather I like the challenge that this possesses. For many students it’s often about simply finding the right book, but more…

Developing a reading habit

During my research for my thesis, I spent a lot of time reading about the importance of reading (how meta is that…) and I discovered some very interesting things. I thought I’d share some of the most interesting tidbits of information that I discovered here. I also shared a video on my YouTube channel with…